The New Caledonia dry forests is a tropical dry broadleaf forest

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

in New Caledonia, an overseas territory of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

located in the

South Pacific Ocean South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

. The dry forests cover the western side of Grand Terre, New Caledonia's largest island.

Geography

The New Caledonia dry forests cover an area of 4,129 km². Grand Terre extends northwest-southeast, and a long spine of mountains extend the length of the island. The dry forests lie in the drier rain shadow of mountains. The

New Caledonia rain forests The New Caledonia rain forests are a terrestrial ecoregion, located in New Caledonia in the South Pacific. It is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion, part of the Australasian realm. Setting The ecoregion covers the windward eastern s ...

ecoregion covers the rest of the island, including the eastern slope and high mountains.

Nouméa Nouméa () is the capital and largest city of the French special collectivity of New Caledonia and is also the largest francophone city in Oceania. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main island, Grande Terre, and ...

, New Caledonia's capital and largest city, is located on the coast in the southern portion of the ecoregion.

Flora

The natural vegetation of the ecoregion's lowlands is dense dry forest, also known as

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...

forest, with trees 5 to 15 meters high. The forests have a thick understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants, and numerous vines climb into the trees. '' Acacia spirorbis'' is a characteristic tree, and the introduced tree ''

Leucaena leucocephala ''Leucaena leucocephala'' is a small fast-growing mimosoid tree native to southern Mexico and northern Central America (Belize and Guatemala) and is now naturalized throughout the tropics including parts of Asia. Common names include jumbay, ...

'' is often co-dominant. Other common trees include species of ''

Canthium ''Canthium'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. They are shrubs and small trees. The leaves are deciduous and the stems are usually thorny. Distribution ''Canthium'' species are predominantly found in Southeast Asia, espec ...

, Gardenia,

Pittosporum ''Pittosporum'' ( or ) is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Pittosporaceae. The genus is probably Gondwanan in origin; its present range extends from Australasia, Oceania, eastern Asia and some parts of Africa. ''Cit ...

, Dodonaea'', and ''

Premna ''Premna'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae, first described for modern science in 1771. It is widespread through tropical and subtropical regions in Africa, southern Asia, northern Australia, and various islands in th ...

''. The

cycad Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male o ...

Cycas seemannii ''Cycas seemannii'' is a species of cycad found in Fiji, Vanuatu (in Efate), Tonga, and New Caledonia.Whitelock, Loran M. 2002. ''The Cycads''. Portland: Timber Press. In Vanuatu, the cycad is known as namele and is an important symbol of tra ...

'' grows in stands on stabilized coastal dunes. The other conifers so characteristic of New Caledonia's rain forests don't occur in the dry forests. The dry forests are home to 407 woody plant species, 243 of which are endemic to New Caledonia and 60 endemic to the dry forests. Dry-forest endemic trees include '' Ixora margaretae'' and ''

Terminalia cherrieri ''Terminalia cherrieri'' is a species of plant in the Combretaceae family. It is endemic to New Caledonia. It is threatened by habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a nat ...

''."New Caledonia". ''Tropical dry forests of the Pacific''. Accessed 5 September 2020. http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/geog/tdfpacific/new_caledonia.html

Protected areas

Frequent fires and clearance for agriculture and cattle raising have reduced the dry forest to scattered patches which cover only 2% of the ecoregion's land area. A 2017 assessment found that 2,451 km², or 59%, of the ecoregion is now in protected areas. Very little intact habitat remains outside the protected areas. The largest protected area is Zone Côtière Ouest National Park (2552.68 km²), which covers the central portion of the ecoregion and extends east into the rain forests ecoregion.UNEP-WCMC (2020). Protected Area Profile for New Caledonia from the World Database of Protected Areas, September 2020. Available at: www.protectedplanet.net

External links

References

{{reflist Ecoregions of New Caledonia Australasian ecoregions tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests